Abortion Act commemorations

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the implementation of the Abortion Act. This pernicious piece of legislation was passed on October 27 1967 but came into force on April 27 1968.

Amongst those bearing witness will be hundreds of SPUC supporters across the country, taking part in localised "pro-life chains". These involve pro-lifers lining the walkway of a busy road in silence for two hours (11am - 1pm) with placards bearing messages such as "abortion kills children and hurts women" and "women deserve better than abortion". They are taking place at locations across the UK. For a list of them click here. If you have time - it doesn't even have to be for the full two hours - go along to give your support to your local chain. If you are driving past one of them, beep your horn and give the thumbs up. Participating in such events is not an easy thing. In fact, you get abuse - people making obscene hand gestures, people bibbing their horns in disgust, and, occasionally, motorists stopping to have a load off to you through the window. Despite all this, taking part is a very humbling experience. In a sense, people who do this are being mocked and persecuted in the cause of what is right. They attempt to unite the sufferings of the unborn with those of Christ and provide a voice for those who do not have one. And if you can't make it to one of the gatherings, pray for your local branch over lunchtime on Saturday.

As I am due to be at home this weekend, I hope to be taking part in the Hull and East Riding branch's kerbside vigil on Raich Carter Way (A1079), near to the Beverley Road/bypass roundabout Kingswood, Hull. Come along if you can.

I'm also very happy to promote the following (separate) event I've received information by email about. This fitting procession is to be held in York on Sunday:

MOURNING PROCESSION IN THE STEPS OF THE YORKSHIRE MARTYRS

"To commemorate the lives of seven million innocent children killed since 1967 and to pray for the renewal of our country as The Dowry of Mary"

1pm Opening prayers in St Wilfred’s Church, High Petergate

1.30pm Assemble outside, carrying white wooden crosses


Walk in silence in pairs, via Stonegate , to St Helen’s Square, Coney Street, Low Ousegate, to Ousebridge

Red and white flowers dropped into river, to symbolise babies. Prayers at site of Margaret Clitheroe’s martyrdom

Proceed via Bridge street and Micklegate Bar to Barr

Convent for prayers (relic of Margaret Clitheroe)

Proceed along blossom street to Knavesmire, for open air Mass, (approx 3-30) weather permitting, if not in Church of English Martyrs

4-30 Refreshments

For further details re transport etc email pms@bronco.co.uk or tel:-
Pat 0113 2582745 mob 07747698553
Mary 07946091770

Pope bashes secularism during visit to United States

Like many of you, I've been eagerly watching coverage of our Holy Father on his trip to the United States. The coverage on Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) has been amazing - the comprehensiveness, the analysis, the availability and, of course, the expertise and talent of the legendary presenter, Raymond Arroyo. You can watch all of Pope Benedict's engagements on demand here.

"A triumphant journey", was how Fr Richard Neuhaus described the visit at the end of the closing Mass this evening. And who could disagree?

From the meeting with the Bishops' Conference, to the two massive open air Masses, to the visit to Ground Zero earlier today, the visit was a resounding success and is bound to renew the faith of, not just Catholics in America, but those across the world, particularly the English speaking people. Indeed, it's also been wonderful to hear the Pope speak English at length, a pleasure we do not often have. Most of the time, we have to rely on often translations (sometimes inaccurate) and a lot of the time no translation at all when watching the audience, or other papal visits etc. Although the Pope's English is not the best - he tends to rush it and has difficulty with pronunciations - it is impressively fluent.

A common misconception or criticism of the Holy See is that it is completely out of touch with the rest of the world. Arguably, the most striking thing about the Pontiff's words this week is that Benedict knows exactly what's going on across the world and offers practical solutions to overcome difficulties and scandals. He tackled several issues - most prominently, of course, the -child abuse scandal - head on when many were expecting him to tip-toe around them. The fact that he met a group of people who had been sexually abused by priests was a poignant indication of his willingness to address the wrongs of those who have abused their holy office. His decision to tell the world that he had met such a group after the event shows how sensitive he is to the suffering of the victims. Rather than parade them in front of the cameras, the Vatican decided to issue a press release after the meeting.

On another occasion, the Holy Father exposed his words to the world when the original intention was to keep one of the speech's behind closed doors. The meeting with the Bishops' Conference earlier this week where he gave a magnificent and comprehensive discourse was planned to be a private meeting before the Vatican intervened and said they thought it was important that the whole world listened to what Benedict had to say.

His whole message throughout the week was very much at home with this blog. Pope Benedict bashed secularism from the beginning to the end of the week. During every address by the Pope I've watched so far, I've found myself with my mouth wide open, awestruck by his words of hope. As with all of his speeches, they have a lot of content and are worthy of study before giving an accurate reflection on them. But here are a few snippets in anticipation of a fuller analysis of them later.

At the White House, there was a fantastic moment when President George Bush said: “We need your message to reject this dictatorship of relativism and embrace a culture of justice and truth." The Pope was visibly impressed with Mr Bush's rejection of the non-existence of fundamental right and wrongs - and so was I. In fact, I've been impressed with the importance and gestures that the president gave during the visit. Many headlines this evening have picked up on the similarities between President Bush's ideals and Pope Benedict's message. For instance, Reuters said: Bush poaches some of Benedict’s best lines.

Mr Bush is obviously is highly respectful of the pontiff and not only agrees with his message of the dignity and worth of every human person, a line that got a massive cheer whenever even the president or the Pontiff uttered it. In fact, the president has actively followed through this essential truth in his public policies - banning partial birth abortion and starving funds for embryonic stem cell research to name but two. Obviously, there is the serious and damaging issue of the Iraq war that the pair clearly have two different standpoints on (along with the death penalty), a point that shouldn't be overlooked in the slightest. But my point is this: Which other significant political leader is not afraid to attack relativism and defend the life of the unborn from abortion and embryo experimentation and the elderly, sick and vulnerable from euthanasia? Anyway, enough of this before I start getting accused of mixing religion with politics!

During his introduction at the Basilica the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Benedict nodded in recognition when Cardinal Egan mentioned that the celebration of the Mass in public was illegal before the United States became free. The Cardinal gave an excellent introduction to the Pope's speech to the Bishop's Conference and wasn't afraid to address the child abuse scandal as well as difficulties the church is facing.

During his comprehensive discourse, the Successor of Peter bashed secularism, mentioning in the question and answer session that the secularism of the United States was different to that of what has emerged in Europe. Here are a few snippets about secularism that I picked up on:

"While it is true that this country is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behaviour. Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death? Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel. For an affluent society, a further obstacle to an encounter with the living God lies in the subtle influence of materialism, which can all too easily focus the attention on the hundredfold, which God promises now in this time, at the expense of the eternal life which he promises in the age to come (cf. Mk 10:30). People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given opportunities to drink from the wells of his infinite love.

In the United States, as elsewhere, there is much current and proposed legislation that gives cause for concern from the point of view of morality, and the Catholic community, under your guidance, needs to offer a clear and united witness on such matters. Even more important, though, is the gradual opening of the minds and hearts of the wider community to moral truth. Here much remains to be done. Crucial in this regard is the role of the lay faithful to act as a "leaven" in society. Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church's teaching on today's key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.

In this regard, a matter of deep concern to us all is the state of the family within society... In the family home we experience "some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them" (taken from World Day of Peace message). The family is also the primary place for evangelisation, for passing on the faith, for helping young people to appreciate the importance of religious practice and Sunday observance. How can we not be dismayed as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society? Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether. To some young Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of spouses, sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble lifelong commitment, is simply absent. In such circumstances, children are denied the secure environment that they need in order truly to flourish as human beings, and society is denied the stable building blocks which it requires if the cohesion and moral focus of the community are to be maintained."

In an answer to a question on how to confront the challenges of secularism, the Pontiff said: "I think in particular of our need to speak to the hearts of young people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness and truth."

Amen to that! May St Christopher and St. Joseph Cupertino be with you on your flight home, Holy Father.

Apologies

Every so often, I have to make an apology for not blogging as frequently as I should. Tonight, I apologise once again!

In the last few weeks, it's been hard work and hard play. I've been entertaining guests in Kettering and making trips home and to various places. When I've been home at weekends, I've failed to get off the settee and onto the desk chair.

Service resumes tonight with the belated coverage of the SPUC Student Conference. The first talk I've managed to write up is that of Celeste Beal.

You can find professional pictures of the event here.

SPUC Student Conference: Celeste Beal

Celeste Beal, left, pictured with a group of Catholic students from Cardiff University

Life is a civil right whereas abortion is a civil wrong, according to Celeste Beal, great niece of Martin Luther King.

Speaking at the SPUC student pro-life conference in Scotland, she compared slavery to abortion because unborn children in the womb are defenceless.

Celeste, an active pro-life campaigner, said there was a direct link with civil rights abuses in the past and abortion today. “It’s very clear that abortion is a form of genocide," she said. " All abortion is a bad choice. There is nothing more violent and oppressing than abortion."

Martin Luther King Jr, a black Baptist minister, was one of the pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights movement which aimed to end the discrimination against African-Americans.

His famous “I have a dream speech” delivered in Washington in 1964 gave him the reputation of one of the greatest orators in American history.

Celeste and her mother, Dr Alveda King, are carrying on their family’s legacy by defending the life of the unborn – which is what they see as the most pressing civil rights issue for today’s generation.

As Dr King has said: “How can ‘the dream’ survive if we murder the children?” During her speech, Celeste said: “To quote the great man: ‘Justice too long delayed is too long denied’.”

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI “It’s a deep wound in our society.” Rights come from God, she said, adding that people who stand for life will be attacked by people “who don’t see it clearly”.

To prepare for her talk, Celeste did research into the situation with abortion worldwide and explored the brief history of legalised abortion. She emphasised her horror at abortion rates in Belgium and the Netherlands, for instance, where 11 per cent of known pregnancies end in abortion. In Russia, it’s a massive 60 per cent abortion rate amongst pregnant women. She said she was shocked by the figures.

The Atlanta-born youth speaker and teacher briefly explored the link between abortion and eating disorders as well as the finding that many women don’t feel like going back into work after an abortion experience.

“A lot of women have abortions because they have emotional issues relating to the pregnancy.” We have to provide help for women through crisis pregnancy centres, Celeste added.

The law student described the sad stories of some Church pastors in the United States are actually telling children to have abortions. If their daughters fall pregnant, for instance, they are encouraging them to have abortions to avoid the shame of having a grandchild born out of wedlock. “It’s really sad what’s happening,” she commented.

Advocating abstinence education, Celeste said: “I genuinely believe that if you can’t afford to bring up a baby in the world you can’t afford to have sex. People are using abortion as a form of birth control. I know three women who have used protection and have got pregnant. Two of those had babies born and one had an abortion. Choice seems like a nice word but it’s actually a very weak word. The abstinence message is so important."

During her talk, she illustrated her point with a demonstration. Calling up six volunteers (three girls, three lads), she got two pairs to chomp on a chocolate biscuit and spit the contents into a clean glass of water. Then the two pairs poured a bit of the liquid into each other’s glass. They then held up their glasses. The other pair poured clear, uncontaminated water into each other’s glass. Her point was that people who have sex with different people mix their DNA. She asked: who would you rather commit yourself to in marriage – someone who is promiscuous or someone who has saved themselves for you?

A graduate from Georgia Southern University, Celeste used her degree in science and languages to teach English as a second language in Europe after college. Today, she is studying at Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg Virginia. She combines past and current work experience to assist organizations such as Project Reality, a national abstinence education organisation, and King for America, a faith-based life skills enrichment organization.

She is currently writing her first book, “I Had A Nightmare,” which is her unique answer to where the world is today in context of the dream of her great-uncle.

Olympic Flame

I’ve been at home this weekend and, this afternoon, have been watching with great interest the coverage of the Olympic torch’s somewhat troublesome journey through London.

Although I obviously don’t condone unlawful protests, it’s actually quite amusing to see that the whole event has been disrupted by pro-Tibet protestors. They have completely wrecked the “party”. The pictures of the torch being guarded by three lines of security, at times numbering about 100 police officers, is a perfect illustration of how ridiculous it is that China is hosting the Games this year. This vision completely defeats the object of what the Olympics is apparently meant to stand for – international solidarity and harmony, freedom, people celebrating diversity culture and the values of life and all that stuff. It’s meant to be a global event able to be viewed by all. Many who turned up in London to see the flame being carried could barely spot it because, as one member of the public said, the “torch in a box” was in hands of police.

My view, as I’ve expressed before, is that China should never have been awarded the Games in light of the current situation there. I simply fail to understand the argument that it’s ok to carry the torch whilst being concerned about the human rights issues in China. That’s a load of rubbish. If they are appalled by what’s going on there, how do they justify carrying this international symbol which has basically been hijacked by the Chinese authorities as a way of attempting to promote their oppressive regime throughout the world. A good point was made by Kate Hoey, the former sports minister who joined pro-Tibet protestors today, when she said that no other country hosting the Games has decided to parade the torch around so many countries than China has.

It’s so uncomfortable when the former prime minister standing next to the Cardinal, who has invited the recently converted Catholic (who has a scandalous voting record on matters of life and death) to give a prestigious lecture on “faith and globalisation” on the sanctuary at Westminster Cathedral on Thursday, says that a long term partnership with China is vital. Here's an extract from his speech:

“…the centre of gravity, economically and politically, is shifting East.
And it is shifting fast. China has gone from a standing start to arguably the
most powerful nation on the continent of Africa. China and India together, will
industrialise the bulk of their populations, presently employed in subsistence
agriculture, probably within 2 decades. Because of the size of their
populations, understand what this means: it is an industrialisation roughly 3
times that of the U.S.A. and at roughly 5 times the speed. Yes the mind boggles.

It is one reason why a sensible long-term partnership with China, and of
course with India, is of vital strategic importance to us.”

So, yes there might be some human rights issues in China, but, because it’s in our economic interests to have a good relation, we’ll brush the abuses under the carpet? I wonder what the reaction from the Government would be if the Olympics were taking place in Zimbabwe this year, for instance? I imagine it would be markedly different.

Gordon Brown also seemed comfortable today being pictured with the torch, although not holding it. I’m not surprised. His Government actually cooperates with the human rights abuses of China by giving millions of pounds of money to fund the country’s gut-wrenching one child policy. His ministers may well try and claim that no money given to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) goes directly to China, but large sums of money for other purposes (which are deeply unethical anyway), simply frees up other money to be ploughed into the policy’s enforcement of forced sterilization and abortion.

I fully acknowledge the awful plight of the people of Tibet and their protests today. But people should be clear that this is not the only attack on, and abuse of, human life in China. The one child policy and all its ramifications (including the selling of children like commodities), as well as the fact that it is illegal to be a practicing Roman Catholic and that several of our bishops and priest are in prison over there for simply celebrating the sacraments, are just two examples.
One of my first reactions when switching on the TV this morning was “Why didn’t we (Catholics) go to conduct peaceful protests to expose the One Child policy and lack of religious freedom?

Death of Pope John Paul II: Three years on

Today is the third anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death. He died on April 2 2005 at 9:37 pm.

His beatification is expected to be a certaintity, according to the Bishop's Conference of the Philippines in a statement today. Polish priest Monsignor Slawomir Oder is heading the process of reviewing John Paul's life and presenting the case for whether his virtues qualify him for sainthood.

Oder told Vatican Radio yesterday that he has completed a ``semifinal version'' of a 2,000-page report.

Pope Benedict held a memorial mass in St Peter's Square this morning.
H2O news has a moving but short clip commemorating the date.

You can view it at http://www.h2onews.org/index.php.

SPUC Student conference

Gartmore House, the venue for the conference

I'm hopefully going to be posting quite extensively on the SPUC International Student Pro-Life Conference which I had the pleasure attending at the weekend. It was a tremendous event, with students from the UK, Ireland, eastern Europe and as far away as the United States in attendance.

There was an excellent atmosphere with young people, many of whom had never met before, enjoying each other's company and determined to learn more about the horrors of abortion and what they can do to fight it.

The keynote speaker was Celeste Beal, the great niece of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She is currently a law student who also goes into schools across America to teach abstinence. Celeste and her mum, Dr Alveda King, are carrying on their family legacy of campaigning against injustice. They believe that defending the life of the unborn is the most pressing civil rights issue for today’s generation. As Dr Alveda King: has said: "How can the dream survive if we murder the children?" This is a reference to Luther King's famous “I Have A Dream” speech, which established himself as one of the greatest orators in American history.

“Life is a civil right – abortion is a civil wrong,” Celeste said during her speech. She likened abortion to slavery, because an unborn baby has no power to do anything. She said: “It’s very clear that abortion is a form of genocide. There is nothing more violent and oppressing than abortion.”

The most powerful testimony of the conference had to be by former self-confessed bad guy Bryan Kemper. The former drug addict was converted to Christianity by a doctor who was treating him for an overdose. Bryan founded Rock for Life, which organises music tours across the United States to promote the pro-life message. He now heads Stand True Ministries, a Christ-centred pro-life group “determined to awaken the youth of this country and share the message of life and the Gospel of Christ”. As well as giving the amazing tale of his conversion, he gave a passionate account of his pro-life campaigning, comparing abortion to the holocaust and 9/11. He challenged the youngsters to help their unborn brothers and sisters, emphasising that they would be like those who walked past the Samaritan if they didn't stand up for their neighbours. His speech left me, and many of the other youngsters, gobsmacked.

I hope to bring you more detailed coverage of these two speeches, as well as abortion and feminism by Joan Dillon of Pro-Life Feminists International and Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's political secretary, on the opponents of the pro-life movement.